Files

The files module is a central place to store any kind of file that you will use in your site content. It manages uploads and also integrates with cloud providers. It has a powerful library that takes care of all the complicated things for addon developers. It takes your input and returns a standardized array as the result.

To use the library you must first load it using $this->load->library('files/files'); You are then ready to start using it in your module.

Note that you must set up your cloud provider credentials in CP > Settings > Files before you can interact with a cloud location

Results

The first thing you should know is that every action performed by the Files library will return an array. It will be in this format:

array('status' => true, 'message' => 'A message string in the current language', 'data' => $any_available_data);

Creating a folder

Usage

Files::create_folder($parent_id, $folder_name);

Parameters

Name	Description	Required	Type
$parent_id	The id of the folder that this should be a child of. Use 0 to set this folder as top level.	Yes	Integer
$folder_name	The name to give this folder. Defaults to 'Untitled Folder'	No	String
$location	The location (local, rackspace-cf, or amazon-s3). Defaults to local	No	String
$remote_container	If the location is a cloud provider then you must specify the bucket/container name.	No	String

Uploading a file

Usage

To upload a file you must have a form in your view so that the user can select the file they wish to upload. It must be a multipart form.

< ?php echo form_open_multipart('your-module/upload');? >
    <input type="file" name="userfile" />
< ?php echo form_close(); ? >

Now in your controller:

Files::upload($folder_id, $name);

Here's the cool part: if the folder that you are uploading to has its location set to a cloud provider the file will be uploaded to the cloud with no extra effort on your part.

Parameters

Name	Description	Required	Type
$folder_id	The id of the folder to upload to.	Yes	Integer
$name	The name to give the file. Defaults to the uploaded file's filename.	No	String
$field	The input field name. Default is 'userfile'.	No	String
$width	If you wish to resize the image while uploading you can pass the desired width.	No	Integer
$height	If you wish to resize the image while uploading you can pass the desired height.	No	Integer
$ratio	If resizing the image should the resizer try to keep the same width to height ratio?	No	Boolean
$allowed_types	A string of allowed types for uploading, separated by pipe characters. Ex: png\|jpg. Defaults to the file type of the file being uploaded.	No	String
$alt	Value for the 'alt_attribute' column for files. Useful for photos.	No	String
$replace_file	If you want to update a file on the server, pass a file row object in this parameter. It will update the file instead of creating a new one, preserving the filename, name, description, and alt_attribute fields.	No	Mixed

Array Returned

Files::upload returns the following:

id
folder_id
user_id
type
name
path
description
filename
extension
mimetype
filesize
width
height
date_added

Example Usage

$results = Files::upload($folder_id = 1);

if ($results['status']) {
    $data = $results['data'];
} else {
    $this->session->set_flashdata($results['status'] ? 'success' : 'notice', $results['message']);
}

Available Methods

// create a virtual folder
create_folder($parent = 0, $name = 'Untitled Folder', $location = 'local', $remote_container = '')
// check if a container is available in a cloud location
check_container($name, $location)
// create a container at a cloud location
create_container($container, $location, $folder_id = 0)
// get the contents of a folder
folder_contents($folder_id = 0)
// get a multidimensional array of all virtual folders
folder_tree()
// rename a virtual folder
rename_folder($id = 0, $name)
// delete a virtual folder
delete_folder($id)
// upload a file
upload($folder_id, $name = FALSE, $field = 'userfile', $width = FALSE, $height = FALSE, $ratio = FALSE)
// rename a local file (default) or move between local and cloud locations or between cloud providers
move($file_id, $new_name = FALSE, $location = FALSE, $new_location = 'local', $container = '')
// get a file by filename or id
get_file($identifier = 0)
// get all files records recorded in the database
get_files($location = 'local', $container = '')
// list all physical files. Does not depend on database records
list_files($location = 'local', $container = '')
// refresh the database records for this folder. Fetches new files from the cloud and deletes db records if file no longer exists.
synchronize($folder_id)
// rename a file both in the database and on the filesystem if it's a local file. Only changes the record for cloud files
rename_file($id = 0, $name)
// deletes a file 
delete_file($id = 0)
// searches folders and files for the term. Returns [limit] of each
search($search = '', $limit = 5)